Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons^™

Continuous Cereal Cropping With Alternative Tillage Systems In Western Australia, R J. Jarvis, N D. Delroy, A P. Hamblin

Technical Bulletins

In 1977, a ten year series of continuous cropping trials was commenced to compare the effect of four farm tillage systems. This bulletin reports the grain yield results for the first six years of these trials.

Using The Zadoks Growth Scale, M W. Perry, D. G. Bowran, G. Brown

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

The Zadoks growth scale, which is already used overseas as an aid to better crop management, is gradually being adopted in crop production in Western Australia.

By using the scale grain growers are able to identify the various stages of crop development, particularily those growth stages that are closely related to practices such as crop spraying where treatment too early or too late may be ineffective or damaging.

Row Spacing And Cereal Crop Yield, R N. Burch, M. W. Perry

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

Cereal growers in western Australia have, traditionally, burned cereal stubbles. Burning stubble residues reduces weed seed populations and fungal pathogens, but its main purpose has been to eliminate straw which might cause blockages od seeding machinery and por see-bed preparation in the time critical seeding operation.

In 982, the Department of Agriculture began a project to determine whether wider spaced rows also depressed cereal yields in Western Australia. This article summarises some of the important results from that work.

Protein Enrichment Of Cereal Grains For Livestock, Andrew C. Dunlop, C. L. Mcdonald

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

Every year Western Australian farmers feed about 759,000 tonnes of cereal grain to livestock, mostly to sheep but also to dairy and beef cattle. These grains are fed as drought feeds, as supplements to augment poor quality or scarce paddock feed or in growth rations to attain higher levels of production. Many grains fed, however, have a low protien content and are therefore used inefficiently by animals.

Several methods of improving the low protien content of feed grains have been tested. They include the addition of lupin seed, spraying oats with urea and gassing oats with ammonia.

Tolerance Of Cereal Crops To Herbicides, D G. Bowran

Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4

Herbicides have come to play an important role in the control of weeds in Western Australian cereal crops, with some estimates showing that sufficient herbicide was applied to treat every hectare of cereal grown in 1984.

While the use of herbicides reduces competition from weeds, they may have a hidden cost. As chemicals which affect plants, herbicides may also affect plants, herbicides may also affect and damage the crop which they are protecting. The crop may possibly fail, and some or all of the economic benefits obtained from the chemical control of weeds may not be realised.